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So where are the newer items? Try http://Blog.FriendsOfULC.org

Contrary to what many have suggested, we haven't given up, and we haven't gone into hiding. And we do like the motto, "Give Inertia a Chance", but that does not explain why newer items on 2Realms.com have been rare. But inertia explains almost everything, which is why it is the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics; or is that entropy? We embrace them all here. There are newer items by your chief cook, chef, bottle washer, editor and contributor on two other sites: Blog.FriendsOfULC.org and www.FriendsOfULC.org.

We're not dead yet, but give us more time. From 2008 on articles here on 2Realms.com have been increasingly rare. Your humble author (editor, contributor, etc.) began to devote most of his web site time to two sites beginning in November of 2008: Blog.FriendsOfULC.org www.FriendsOfULC.org. Those two sites were begun to make people aware of what was happening to University Lutheran Chapel at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis (ULC). In November of 2008 the Minnesota South District of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (the holder of the title to the property that housed University Lutheran Chapel) proposed selling the property. By July of 2012, they were successful. But not without a fight, and not before their own convention forced them to give 2 million dollars to University Lutheran Chapel to relocate.

More details are available on www.ULCMN.org and Blog.FriendsOfULC.org. The www site was first, starting in 2009 February. That site is still on Google sites (more specifically, Google Sites on Google Apps for domains). That proved handy for document sharing for a few people interested in ULC, but as a web site for the general public it was not quite as adept. This was no doubt largely due to "user error" on my part, and Google is very clear on what their platform can and cannot do, so no criticism is intended.

By 2012 I decided it would be better to have a site that was easier to maintain and better adapted for quickly adding content for the general public. Blogs had become ubiquitous, and Google had acquired one of the best blog companies by buying Pyra Labs "Blogger" in 2003. By 2007 Google Blogger was fully integrated with Google Apps and Google Sites, and by 2012 it was an obvious choice for an easy to maintain site. The rest of the world, of course, knew this years before I did, but I do eventually catch on.

Google Blogger also does a few things that we find very impressive. If you read our Acceptable Use Policy and FAQ, you will notice that 2Realms.com doesn't like spam, and we're very particular about comments on the web site. Sadly, we have found that it only takes one comment to deface an otherwise excellent discussion or article. I call this the "Screeching Howling Feces Throwing Monkey Effect". You know it when you see it. Other sites just let it go, or do something humorous with this kind of material. We haven't figured that out yet, so we effectively disable comments. We would encourage readers to send us email, but that too takes time to sort through.

Google Blogger makes it much, much easier to vet comments from credible readers, and it eliminates spam. Commenters have to be verified, and are not published until approved. Google Blogger also keeps statistics by date, time, ip address and location, and breaks them down by post and page. We know that Blog.FriendsOfULC.org does not have a high readership, but the statistics tell us that in the two weeks before the Minnesota South District Convention, 3 posts had a total of 522 pageviews. In the month before the Minnesota South District Convention, 10 posts had a total of 1077 pageviews. For a very small volume site (a little over 2400 pageviews in two years), that is a lot of concentration in a very little time. We're assuming that other sites covering the events surrounding ULC had far more pageviews by an exponential factor, and we're also assuming that some of the pageviews for the blog are duplicates, or administrative. So while we can't take any credit for whatever good came out of their convention, we have good reason to believe we did our small part in getting the word out.

Thank you for your time, patience and interest. All the articles dating back to 2004 are still here. You can click on the "articles" tab on the top left of the page to find them. For newer material, please see Blog.FriendsOfULC.org.